Over the course of this season there has been many postings throughout Celtics blogging sites questioning where Eddie House’s production is. I am included in that and on many occasions this year had the belief that he had finally broken the spell,and was ready to get on a streak. As we know, none of those were correct. I have a different feeling about the way House has played over the past 2 games, though.
During the preseason, Eddie House was making shots left and right. I thought he may break his record from last year, but at the same time I didn’t know but if maybe he had used up all his good shots too soon, in games that didn’t matter. Once the season started, and a few games got under way, you could see the slippage in his game. Last year, in the games in which the Celtics offense struggled, he would always find a way to lift them up. This year, so far, there really hasn’t been any of that for any stretch of time.
Sparingly throughout the season he has had good games. Wednesday in the game against Miami, Eddie had 16 points on 5-9 shooting, but more importantly 2-4 from 3. Last night, in the game against the Nets, he started 0-5 but finished 4-10 and 2-5 from deep. The reality is, most of those shots are 3 point shots anyway. I have noticed that this year, more than any other year, he takes alot of long 2’s. Consistently he just has his toe on the line. So he is hitting a ton of “threes” which makes me more confident that he is on his way.
It really doesn’t take much to set the House on fire. In last nights game it took him one shot to get him going. He couldn’t hit anything, until he banked in that mid range jumper. If you have kept up with his game, you knew that from that point on he was going to have an impact. He is a player based off confidence, and it doesn’t take too much for him to start feeling it. If opponents allow him the space to get off one good look at the basket, and it goes down, there isn’t much they can do after because his quick trigger will hit tough shot after tough shot.
So hopefully this mini stretch he has gone on will propel him to have more games like this throughout the season. He is that instant offense that the Celtics need from time to time, and his game alone is a momentum changer. When he starts hitting shots you can feel the energy in the Garden rise. Last nights game is a good example of a game that was very flat until he started hitting his shots. Hey, he made a game against the New Jersey Nets fun to watch, now thats saying something. I’m telling you, in the near future expect 5 out of 7 from three coming out of Eddie House. You heard it here first.
(Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images)